A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wrapping material for a quantity of piece goods, which material includes shrinkable plastic foils and a reinforced generally flat material. The invention also pertains to a method of forming a wrapped package, as well as the wrapped package itself.
B. Background of the Invention
Whenever a quantity of medium-sized to small piece goods, for example, cosmetic articles, are to be assembled and wrapped to form a consignment lot, there is the problem of finding a wrapping material by which the quantity of goods can be uniformly and tightly wrapped since each of the cosmetic articles generally differ from one another.
One known attempt has been with foldable cardboard boxes of a size and dimension, such that the usual quantity of consignment lot would fit therein. In case of smaller consignment quantities, however, the remaining space of the cardboard box is filled by a suitable filling material so as to keep the goods in position within the box, notwithstanding the box being turned over. Wood fiber, filling paper, pourable polystyrol, or two-component foams have been considered suitable filling materials. Drawbacks are associated with such materials. In case of wood fiber, there is the danger of fire. Moreover, wood fiber is comparatively heavy and causes dust and undue work. Also, it is sensitive to dampness. Comparatively high costs and undue work are drawbacks which must be taken into account in connection with filling paper. Besides these drawbacks, it provides less than entirely sufficient protection for the packaged articles. Although little work is caused by pourable polystyrol, the price thereof is relatively high. The same disadvantage applies with respect to the two-component or supporting foam. Furthermore, all of these filling materials have one common drawback, that is, they have to be removed from the box and disposed of as waste. Furthermore, the amount of waste may be comparatively voluminous.
Soft and, preferably, transparent shrinkable foils have been known recently to be used in the wrapping technique. Some of such foils are also shrinkable monoxially, that is, they shrink in one direction only. It has also been known to deposit the articles to be wrapped on a rigid carrier sheet, and to enclose such articles and carrier sheet by means of a shrinkable foil and to fix the articles on the carrier sheet by shrinkage of the foil. A packing unit having the above features has been generally described in German application DE B No. 22 17 186. In such a unit, an article to be packed is positioned on a rigid carrier sheet and a carrier sheet. The foil sheet, sealed to opposite side portions of the carrier sheet, is shrunk onto the article. The opposite side portions of the carrier sheet sealed to the foil are folded over into juxtaposition with the side of the carrier sheet remote from the article. This unit may then be used as an insert in a container, e.g. a cardboard box, to be dispatched. Such packing unit, however, cannot easily be used for a quantity of loosely positioned piece goods. This approach, moreover, requires a lot of material since each additional piece of packing material must later be removed as waste. The reinforced carrier sheet is constructed as a folding sheet and the folded over side portions tend to return to the unfolded condition thereby to serve as springy cushions filling the space between the unit and the outer packing container.